NO SERIOUSLY, HE MEANS IT. STOP LAUGHING

Russia wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine without Brexit, suggests top MEP

Adam Forrest

Tue, 31 January 2023 

Russia may not have invaded Ukraine if Brexit had not happened, senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt has said on the third anniversary of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Mr Verhofstadt – the European parliament’s former Brexit coordinator – suggested Vladimir Putin calculated that the continent was not united on defence after the UK’s exit from the bloc.

“This war, this brutal invasion started with Putin and Russia,” he told LBC. “It’s really an attempt by Putin to restore the old Soviet Union. The only difference is the communist party is replaced with his own cronies.”

Mr Verhofstadt added: “A united Europe, certainly on defence matters, would make an enormous difference. I think maybe without Brexit, maybe there was no invasion. I don’t know.”

The MEP, former leader of liberal alliance in the Brussels’ parliament, said he hoped the UK could still rejoin the EU – but conceded it was unlikely in the next five years.

“Let’s hope that Britain can re-join, and let’s hope Ukraine can join. Why not within five years? Maybe it’s a little bit optimistic with the UK,” he said.

Mr Verhofstadt added: “My feeling is, the last time when I was in London, that for the first time in public opinion in Britain, people understand that Brexit was the wrong choice and that Brexit has done a lot of damage to Europe, and certainly to the UK.”

Former Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted that Brexit was “going well” for a whole range of reasons on the third anniversary.

Mr Rees-Mogg pointed to “cheaper insurance” after a change of EU rules, the gene-editing bill, Solvency II regulations to cut red tape in the City, and Britain not being liable for the EU’s £191bn Covid bailout.

He also claimed problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol were not the “inevitable consequence” of Brexit.

“It’s temporary,” he told Sky News. “It seems to me the protocol is failing and needs to be fundamentally reformed. There must not be a border in the Irish Sea.”

Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, claimed Britain has taken “huge strides” in taking advantage of the opportunities opened up by Brexit – claiming the country was confidently forging a new path as an “independent nation”.

The PM pointed to the opening of eight new freeports, plans to review or abolish EU red tape, and the overhaul of the regime for business subsidies among the benefits of the break with Brussels.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan – who has called for the UK to rejoin the EU single market – said it was time to abandon “the hostile mentality of the referendum years and open a dialogue with our European neighbours about greater alignment”.

The SNP and Greens said Scottish independence is the only way to escape the “unmitigated disaster” of Brexit as the UK marks the third anniversary of leaving the bloc.

Almost All Constituencies Think Brexit Was A Mistake, Poll Shows

Graeme Demianyk
Mon, 30 January 2023 

Then-prime Minister Boris Johnson walks away after driving a Union flag-themed JCB, with the words Get Brexit Done inside the digger bucket, through a fake wall emblazoned with the word Gridlock, during a visit to JCB cab manufacturing centre in Uttoxeter, while on the general election campaign trail in 2019.

Then-prime Minister Boris Johnson walks away after driving a Union flag-themed JCB, with the words Get Brexit Done inside the digger bucket, through a fake wall emblazoned with the word Gridlock, during a visit to JCB cab manufacturing centre in Uttoxeter, while on the general election campaign trail in 2019.

A new poll to mark the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU has suggested most voters think Brexit was a mistake.

A survey by Unherd and Focaldata asked voters across England, Scotland and Wales whether “Britain was wrong to leave the EU”.

In all but three of 632 constituencies, more people agreed than disagreed. The three constituencies that disagreed are all in Lincolnshire.

Bristol West, Edinburgh South and Streatham were the three most “Bregretful” constituencies. Boston and Skegness, South Holland and the Deepings, and Louth and Horncastle were most in favour of having left.

Overall, 37 per cent of those polled strongly agreed, 17 per cent mildly agreed, 9 per cent mildly disagreed and 19 per cent strongly disagreed. Some 18 per cent said “neither”.

Then-prime minister Boris Johnson led the country out of the European Union and into its transition period on January 31, 2020.

In the UK-wide Brexit referendum in 2016, some 52% voted to leave while 48% voted to remain. There was a 72% turnout across the country.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has ruled out on multiple occasions the UK rejoining the EU or re-entering the single market, while also criticising the deal agreed between London and Brussels by Johnson.

The Northern Ireland Protocol, signed off by Johnson as part of his Brexit deal, remains a source of tension between the UK and the EU as the two sides bid to find a solution.

The row over the protocol, which unionists say creates a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, effectively led to the collapse of powersharing in Stormont.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has said Britain has taken “huge strides” in taking advantage of the opportunities opened up by Brexit to address the challenges facing the country.

In a statement, the prime minister said the country is confidently forging a new path as an “independent nation”.

He pointed to the opening of eight new freeports, plans to review or abolish EU red tape and the overhaul of the regime for business subsidies among the benefits of the break with Brussels.

In his statement, Sunak said: “In the three years since leaving the EU, we’ve made huge strides in harnessing the freedoms unlocked by Brexit to tackle generational challenges.

“Whether leading Europe’s fastest vaccine rollout, striking trade deals with over 70 countries or taking back control of our borders, we’ve forged a path as an independent nation with confidence.

“And in my first 100 days as Prime Minister, that momentum hasn’t slowed – we’re cutting red tape for businesses, levelling up through our freeports, and designing our own, fairer farming system to protect the British countryside.

“This is just the beginning of our plans to deliver on our five priorities, including growing the economy so we can create better paid jobs, and I’m determined to ensure the benefits of Brexit continue to empower communities and businesses right across the country.”

Prime minister Rishi Sunak during a Q&A session at Teesside University on Monday.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak during a Q&A session at Teesside University on Monday.

Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom has insisted leaving the EU will be “the best decision we ever made” despite the unease among some with the way Brexit has turned out.

The former cabinet minister was appearing on a special episode of BBC’s Newsnight to mark the third anniversary on Tuesday of the UK’s withdrawal from the bloc.

The Tory MP was brought on as one of the most vocal advocates of Brexit during the referendum campaign, and her view appears not to have shifted.

Her upbeat tone comes despite recent polling suggesting growing unhappiness with the direction Brexit has taken.

Leadsom said: “I was so certain and remain so certain that the UK’s future lies outside of the EU, so it was the greatest pleasure and privilege to be able to make that case to the British public with no holds barred. Why should we leave? Here is why.

“For me, I was absolutely passionate about it and I still remain the same today. So I think it is going to be the best decision we ever made. It does always take time, particularly with the horrendous ... the pandemic and Putin’s aggression, and the cost of living crisis, and the energy crisis.”

Three years on, Britain still waits for Brexit dividend

Machines produced by Bruderer Uk Ltd are seen inside the company's factory in Luton

By Andy Bruce
Mon, 30 January 2023

LONDON (Reuters) - Three years after its departure from the European Union, Britain is yet to benefit from the Brexit dividend that was promised for its economy as it lags its peers on multiple fronts, including trade and investment.

Britain exited the EU on Jan. 31, 2020, though remained in the bloc's single market and customs union for 11 more months.

On that day, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country could finally fulfil its potential and that he hoped it would grow in confidence with each passing month.

So far, the opposite has happened, with a range of indicators showing under-performance compared with other economies.

Opinion polls show Britons who regret leaving the EU increasingly outnumber those who do not. A survey published on Monday by news website UnHerd showed this was now the case in all but three of 632 parliamentary constituencies surveyed.

The government, led by Brexit-supporting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, says Britain is prospering with new-found freedoms.

Last week, finance minister Jeremy Hunt challenged the talk of decline and said Brexit offered a brighter future with room for measures that will attract investment in areas such as the green economy and tech.

Many economists say leaving the EU is not the sole cause of Britain's woes - the country was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic - but it is a factor that can help explain recent underperformance.

"It's been more than a slow burn. It's been a serious reduction in economic performance," said John Springford, deputy director at the Centre for European Reform think tank.

"If you impose barriers to trade, investment and migration with your biggest trading partner (EU), then you're going have quite a big hit to trade volumes, and to investment and to GDP," he said, pointing to a string of dismal economic data.

Britain was the only Group of Seven advanced economy yet to regain its pre-pandemic size of late 2019 at the end of September last year, the most recent period covered by data.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC-UK is only G7 economy yet to regain pre-pandemic size - https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRITAIN-EU/ECONOMY/gkplwdmdbvb/chart.png

Springford estimated that Brexit reduced Britain's economic output - compared with what it would have been without leaving the EU - by around 5.5% as of mid-2022, based on a "doppelganger" model in which an algorithm selects countries whose economic performance closely matched pre-Brexit Britain.

The government's own forecasting organisation, the Office for Budget Responsibility, and the Bank of England also judge there to be a long-running net cost to leaving the EU.



Some economists disagree with the consensus.

Brexit-supporting economist Gerard Lyons, an adviser to online wealth management platform NetWealth and who advised Boris Johnson during his years as the mayor of London, said it was wrong to blame Britain's problems on Brexit.

"Our problems pre-date Brexit," Lyons said, pointing to chronically low rates of investment in Britain. "Achieving the benefits of Brexit very much depends on delivering ... a growth plan - how you can use your levers post-Brexit."

He criticised the doppelganger method of analysis on the basis that some smaller countries selected by the models were inappropriate comparators for a large economy like Britain.

TRADING BLOWS

Trade and investment data point to other Brexit problems.

Exports, especially in goods, have disappointed over the last three years - despite high hopes for a "Global Britain" rebalancing of the economy after Brexit.

Total exports, including services, have grown by less than those of any other G7 country since late 2019.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC-UK trade performance lags G7 peers - https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRITAIN-EU/ECONOMY/znpnbkdxqpl/chart.png

Boris Glass, senior economist at ratings agency S&P Global, said increased red tape in UK-EU trade had damaged the competitiveness of smaller British manufacturers especially, since they have fewer resources to deal with it.

"It's worth noting that the UK has more small exporters than for example, France or Germany. So in that respect they are disadvantaged," Glass said. "If you are an exporter with 20 employees, then the burden of filling out these forms is very costly. Some of them can't compete at all."

Business investment too has grown by less since the June 2016 Brexit referendum than in the United States, France or Germany, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC-UK business investment has fallen since the Brexit vote - https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRITAIN-EU/ECONOMY/mopaklmkypa/chart.png

Some pro-Brexit economists say such statistics ignore the fact that British corporate investment was unusually strong in the years leading up to mid-2016 and was bound to slow. But business survey evidence overwhelmingly points to Brexit as a factor behind weak investment in recent years.

"It's concerning that there doesn't seem to be any kind of pickup in investment. And I think, in order for us to have a durable recovery from the Brexit shock, then we've got to see that rise," Springford said.

Britain still boasts higher rates of employment and lower unemployment than most EU countries but there are some signs that Brexit may have impacted the labour market too.

Business groups want the government to relax its post-Brexit immigration rules as firms are struggling to find workers, something the BoE fears is stoking inflationary pressures.

And unlike most of its G7 peers, Britain's employment rate has yet to recover to its pre-pandemic level.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC-UK employment rate still short of pre-pandemic norm - https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRITAIN-EU/ECONOMY/lgvdknmorpo/chart.png

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by William Schomberg and Mark Heinrich)

Britain unlawfully issued surveillance warrants for nearly five years - tribunal

Mon, 30 January 2023 

 Thames House, the headquarters of the British Security Service (MI5) is seen in London

(Reuters) - British spies unlawfully retained people's intercepted data over almost five years, a tribunal said on Monday in a ruling that blamed “widespread corporate failure” at the domestic intelligence agency MI5 and the interior ministry.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which did not mention specific cases or intelligence targets in its written judgment, said there had been “serious failings in compliance” by MI5 from late 2014 to April 2019.

Judge Andrew Edis also said the Home Office had failed to make "adequate enquiries" while approving the bulk surveillance warrants from 2016 until April 2019.

Human rights groups Liberty and Privacy International, which brought the legal action, said the ruling showed there had been years of rule-breaking by MI5, which was “overlooked” by the Home Office.

The case related to data obtained in "bulk" under the Investigatory Powers Act and previous legislation, which govern the interception of data for national security purposes.

Britain has been at the forefront of a battle between privacy and security since former U.S. security agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of mass monitoring tactics used by U.S. and British agents in 2013.

The Investigatory Powers Act provides vital tools to protect the public from criminals and terrorism, government and security officials say. But critics argue it grants police and spies some of the most extensive snooping capabilities in the West.

On Monday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the ruling related to "widespread corporate failings between the Home Office and MI5", which were "historic".

In a written statement to parliament, she added that the tribunal found that "it was not the case that MI5 should never have held the material at all, only that some small part of it had been retained for too long".

The tribunal also dismissed Liberty and Privacy International's wider challenge to the effectiveness of safeguards under the Investigatory Powers Act and its predecessor.

It also refused to quash any warrants that might have been unlawfully issued or direct MI5 to delete any unlawfully retained data as it “would be very damaging to national security”.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Andrew Heaven

UK dementia care agency’s half-hour home visits ‘lasted as little as three minutes’

Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent
Mon, 30 January 2023 



A dementia home care agency spent as little as three and a half minutes on taxpayer-funded care visits and filed records claiming far more care was given, according to evidence seen by the Guardian.

The hasty care was exposed by Susan Beswick’s family, who called it “totally inadequate”. They say they had been told visits to 78-year-old Beswick, who has Alzheimer’s disease, were supposed to last 30 or 45 minutes.

Across nine visits this month, care workers formally logged close to six hours of care. But security cameras suggest they were in the house for under one hour 20 minutes – less than nine minutes a visit on average.

The case in Hampshire comes amid councils “rationing” care and a nationwide shortage of home care workers with about one in eight positions vacant – higher than at any point since records began in 2012.

On one evening visit, footage showed two carers entering, asking if Beswick had eaten and checking her incontinence pad, before leaving three minutes and 15 seconds later. But they appeared to log on a care tracking app that they had been with her for one hour and 16 minutes.

One lunchtime they stayed for less than six minutes but appeared to record a half-hour visit on the app. The Beswick family provided the Guardian with footage from a hallway camera showing the carers coming and going through the front door and screengrabs from the app showing how long they claimed they were there around the same periods.

Beswick, who for years was a care worker herself, “deserves so much better”, said her daughter-in-law Karen Beswick.

“It’s upsetting us the way mum is being cared for here,” she said. “They come in and check her [incontinence] pad and go. They are supposed to be encouraging her to drink. They don’t really talk to mum a lot. It’s not good at all. I will start crying. We are all trying to get the best for mum.”

Her son, Peter Beswick, said he informed the agency staff he had installed a camera and considered it “disgusting” they claimed they had been there longer than they had.

In the first six months of 2022, 3.3m hours of home care was not delivered to people who needed it in England because of staff shortages, according to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.

Many domiciliary care workers are likely to be receiving illegally low pay, with typical wages of £9.20 an hour – below the adult minimum wage – when unpaid travel time between care visits is deducted, according to research by the Resolution Foundation.

The Homecare Association is warning that councils may shorten care visits from the current norm of 30 minutes to 15 minutes, which is “stressful, risks quality, and is less efficient”. Almost half of home care staff work under zero-hours contracts.

Susan Beswick’s homecare provider, Pathways of Hope, was this month labelled “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission, which concluded “people were not safe and were at risk of avoidable harm”. At the time it was inspected it supported 39 other people and the regulator found staff were spending just eight minutes with another client who was paying for 30 minutes. It has been recruiting staff from overseas but could not show sufficient information to be assured new staff were safe to work in care, CQC said.

Earlier this month the social care ombudsman uncovered similar three-minute visits in Warrington and said short visits were unlikely to meet care needs and were not dignified.

Liz Kendall, the shadow social care minister, said: “The appalling care received by Susan yet again highlights the scale of problems facing social care, with 165,000 vacancies and over half of care workers looking for a job outside of the sector.”

Labour is promising to tackle staff shortages “by delivering the pay, training, terms and conditions that they deserve”.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was investing up to £7.5bn over the next two years to support adult social care “to help local authorities address waiting lists, low fee rates, and workforce pressures in the sector”.

It said it was developing a way to assess the performance of local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care duties, through the CQC.

Hampshire county council, which commissioned the care, said it was prioritising an inquiry into the concerns. It said providers were vetted and “failing to subsequently deliver what is required and essential for people’s wellbeing is not acceptable – and action will be taken where we find this is the case”.

The care workers log each visit on an app that allows them to input notes and the length of the visit. There is also a family version of the app that allows loved ones to track visits. Peter Beswick noticed that the times logged did not match what he saw on the hallway camera.

The agency’s director, Hilda Chehore, did not return requests for comment. The council has stopped the agency providing care for Susan Beswick, the family said.

Jane Townson, the director of the Homecare Association, said inadequate council budgets – on average at least 30% below the amount needed to pay care workers fair wage – mean care is being “rationed”.

“State-funded homecare is typically only available for those with highest needs who have absolutely no one else to support them,” she said. “This means a growing number of people are quitting their jobs to take on caring responsibilities, constricting economic growth.”

“We call on the government to invest adequately in homecare to grow the workforce, innovate, improve quality of life, extend healthy life expectancy, take pressure off the NHS, reduce costs, and enable economic recovery,” she said.

Farmers will be key to plan to restore England’s green spaces and wildlife

Helena Horton and Fiona Harvey

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 30 January 2023 


It has taken years of campaigns and mass trespasses for the government to put access to green space in England at the top of its agenda, as it has today in the environmental improvement plan.

During the pandemic, the importance of nature for our physical and mental wellbeing became ever more apparent – as did the inequality in access, with the poorest in society less able to access green space.

Now, the government has made this issue a key plank of its five-year plan to improve biodiversity and the environment, which also includes ambitious pledges including restoring 500,000 hectares of wildlife habitat, including 25 new or expanded national nature reserves and a plan on sewage later this year, including improvements to sewage works.

One of its headline pledges is for everyone to be within a 15-minute walk of a green space or water: for some of England’s most marginalised communities, this would be a huge step forward. Access to nature is a key part of protecting it, as Labour’s Jim McMahon told the Guardian last week: “If people don’t have a stake in their environment they won’t fight to protect it.”

Access to green space has become a hot political topic – with McMahon saying in the same interview that Labour would pass a right to roam act, while the Liberal Democrats are proposing a bill that would allow wild camping in national parks.

But what of the rest of the government’s aspirations? They do seem to hinge on uptake from the farming community, with the agricultural sector expected to make most of these environmental improvements. This is no surprise as most of our land in this country is farmed, but it may cause some grumbling in a sector already hit by Brexit trade deals, climate breakdown and an unfair supply chain.

Some of the farming-related pledges include a commitment that 65% to 80% of landowners and farmers will adopt nature-friendly farming practices on at least 10 to 15% of their land by 2030. The government also aims for farmers to create or restore 30,000 miles of hedgerows a year by 2037 and 45,000 miles of hedgerows a year by 2050. The water targets also include farmers, with an aim to restore 400 miles of river through the first round of Landscape Recovery projects, taken part in by farmers and other land managers under the new post-Brexit payment schemes.

These policies will be supported through the new farming payments scheme, the details of which were announced last week. Though it has been simplified, and more ways to get paid by the government to protect nature have been added, some farmers think that the costs of changing the way they farm may outweigh what they are paid under the scheme, which is due to replace the EU’s area-based payments system. It remains to be seen whether the new scheme will be a success.

While the government has been loth to suggest using less of England’s land for livestock farming, despite the recommendations of its food tsar Henry Dimbleby, it appears ministers may hold the meat and dairy industry to account for pollution.

On Tuesday, the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, will reveal she is considering expanding environmental permitting conditions to dairy and intensive beef farms, which means making them accountable for pollution in the same way industrial factories and mining waste operations are.

Some farmers have welcomed the ambition to regulate more. Martin Lines, chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said: “I welcome the ambitious roadmap and recognising farmers need to play their part in delivering more nature-friendly practices across all farmed landscapes. It will be imperative that government get the right balance of using public and private money to be able to start delivering solutions for halting nature’s decline. This needs to be alongside regulation enforcement. We all can then start delivering solutions for not only halting nature’s decline but start seeing his recovery.” It is not likely that the whole sector will share his view.

The plan also includes a multimillion pound Species Survival Fund to protect our rarest species – from hedgehogs to red squirrels, but those interested in rewilding will notice that there is no mention of reintroducing locally extinct species. The Boris Johnson government promised to “build back beaver”, releasing the rodents to reduce the effects of flooding and drought, but perhaps Sunak’s administration does not share this aspiration.

All in all, the targets do look promising. But the Conservative government has been good at setting itself environmental goals, as we saw at Cop26. It is less good on taking the action to meet them and this may end up being another example. It is concerning, perhaps, that so much of the strategy hinges on the success of the new farming payments regime. Our agricultural sector is now more crucial than ever in restoring biodiversity loss – and saving the planet.

Jerusalem ["And did those feet in ancient time"]

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon Englands mountains green:

And was the holy Lamb of God,

On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

 

And did the Countenance Divine,

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here,

Among these dark Satanic Mills?

 

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:

Bring me my arrows of desire:

Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!

Bring me my Chariot of fire!

 

I will not cease from Mental Fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand:

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In Englands green & pleasant Land.

UK 

'Right to strike' protest planned for town centre

Shuiab Khan
Mon, 30 January 2023 

The demonstration will take place outside the town hall (Image: LT)

A 'right to strike' protest will be held in Blackburn town centre in response to proposed legislation which looks to curtail industrial action.

Blackburn and District Trades Union Council is organising the demonstration at 12.30pm outside the town hall on Wednesday, February 1, the same day National Education Union members walk out over pay and conditions.

Speakers will include CWU Regional Secretary Carl Webb, Jenny Pollard from PCS and Andrew Pratt from the NEU.

Organisers say the Government is 'proposing legislation to undermine the impact of strikes in some sectors' and 'pass a law that will allow employers to dictate to individuals that they must work even when they are in dispute'.

Blackburn and District Trades Union Council President, Vikki Dugdale, said: “The timing and scope of this muddled idea shows it is really just a reaction to the current cost-of-living strikes by a Government that thinks it can solve anything by giving itself new powers.

"Strikes in transport and education can be inconvenient, but there are really no public safety issues at stake.

"Where public safety might be at risk, British trade unions have always provided emergency cover during industrial action – and they are the best people to do this, having an interest and investment in making that cover effective.

“We are workers, not conscripts or slaves. This is an affront to liberty and democracy, and nothing more than a blatant attempt to use the power of the state to frustrate workers' efforts simply not to continue getting poorer."

The Government says the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill would allow government to set minimum levels of service which must be met during strikes to ensure the safety of the public and their access to public services.

It added the bill would ensure crucial public services such as rail, ambulances, and fire services maintain a minimum service during industrial action, reducing risk to life and ensuring the public can still get to work.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said: "The first job of any government is to keep the public safe.

"While we absolutely believe in the ability to strike, we are duty-bound to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British people.

"I am introducing a bill that will give government the power to ensure that vital public services will have to maintain a basic function, by delivering minimum safety levels ensuring that lives and livelihoods are not lost.

"We do not want to have to use this legislation unless we have to, but we must ensure the safety of the British public."

Protesters removed from House of Lords as peers debate controversial laws

Nick Lester, PA Chief Lords Reporter

Mon, 30 January 2023 

Demonstrators have disrupted proceedings in the House of Lords as peers debated controversial new protest laws.

The group of around 12 were escorted out of the public gallery by doorkeepers and security staff.

One of the protesters said they were from the environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion.

The protesters were all wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan Defend Human Rights.

The upper chamber was adjourned for five minutes.

The Public Order Bill would allow police to intervene before protests become “highly disruptive” and give officers greater clarity about dealing with demonstrators blocking roads or slow marching, the Government has said.

Amendments to the Bill are aimed at curbing the guerrilla tactics used by groups such as Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “At approximately 15:50 hours on Monday January 30 police were made aware of a protest in the public gallery of the House of Lords.

“The protesters were escorted from the gallery – there were no arrests.”

The Guardian view on Brexit’s unsound legal thinking: turning back the clock
Editorial

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 30 January 2023 


The government “should not proceed” with its bill of rights. That was the withering judgment delivered last week on Dominic Raab’s proposals by parliament’s joint committee on human rights. MPs and peers assessed the bill and correctly decided that the ideal outcome for the country was to drop the deeply flawed legislation. It’s not a bill of rights so much as a bill of wrongs. The cross-party committee said the justice secretary’s proposals would reduce the protections currently provided, make it harder to enforce human rights, and show contempt for international obligations.

The Conservative party in its present guise is determined to free the executive from accountability, and Mr Raab’s ideas are part of a power grab that includes attempts to restrict judicial review, the right of protest and freedom of expression. Making his bill law would see Britain turn its back on the gains made by human rights legislation. Major advances made by disabled people, same‐sex couples and Windrush victims would never have occurred under these proposals.

The committee’s report warns that had Mr Raab’s bill been enacted earlier, there would have been no challenge to the police’s flawed investigation into serial sex offender John Worboys and no Hillsborough inquest. Unsurprisingly, there is no significant backing from the public, the judiciary or civil society for Mr Raab’s bill. Neither the government-commissioned independent review nor the government’s consultation produced much support for the proposals.

Instead, the evidence was “overwhelmingly” against Mr Raab’s bill, which aims to repeal and replace the Human Rights Act. Since 2000 this law has allowed British people to enforce the rights afforded by the European convention on human rights in UK courts rather than going to Strasbourg. Mr Raab’s proposals plainly imply that the ECHR has been taken too far, with the bench unearthing new rights that were not in the text of the convention.

This a Brexit version of American rightwingers’ “originalist” legal argument. It sees the convention as the people who wrote it – in this case in the early 1950s – would have. This would upend the prevailing “living instrument” doctrine, where the convention is understood in the light of present-day conditions. The committee drily notes that the government wants to “encourage the courts to interpret convention rights as they would have been read in the 1950s, not the 21st century”.

Worse may be yet to come. The European court of human rights in Strasbourg applies the same principles across the 46 Council of Europe member states. Mr Raab has refused to rule out the UK leaving the convention in the future, putting Britain alongside rogue regimes like Russia and Belarus. The legal writer Joshua Rozenberg points out that this country has the best human rights record in Europe. Putting the UK, which had violated the convention in just two cases, on a par with Russia, with 374 violations until it was expelled over its Ukraine invasion last year, would be ludicrous, it seems, to all except Conservative ministers.

Even if Mr Raab leaves the cabinet, others are likely to take up the baton. Last August, Suella Braverman, the current home secretary, said it was a “national priority” to extricate the UK from the influence of the Strasbourg court. The good news is that Mr Rozenberg thinks it is “unlikely” that the bill would pass in its present form. It would be better if the legislation was dropped entirely.

Suella Braverman tells peers to back 'proper penalties' for disruptive protesters ahead of Lords vote

SKY NEWS

Sun, 29 January 2023 


Home Secretary Suella Braverman has urged peers to back "proper penalties" for disruptive protesters in a proposed new law.

The new powers would allow police officers to intervene before protests become "highly disruptive" and give them greater clarity about when they can intervene to stop demonstrators blocking roads or slow marching, the government said.

The amendments to the Public Order Bill are aimed at curbing tactics used by groups such as Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion, according to the home secretary.


On Monday, the bill reaches the report stage in the House of Lords, with debates on measures used by some protesters such as locking-on and tunnelling, the thresholds as to what point the police can intervene, and new stop and search powers.

Under the proposed changes, police would not need to wait for disruption to take place and could shut demonstrations down before they escalate.

Ahead of the debate, Ms Braverman said: "Enough is enough. Blocking motorways and slow walking in roads delays our life-saving emergency services, stops people getting to work and drains police resources.

"Around 75 days of Just Stop Oil action alone cost the taxpayer £12.5m in policing response. This is simply not fair on the British public.

"I urge colleagues across the House of Lords to pass this measure tonight - it is our duty to stand up for the law-abiding public and protect their right to go about their business."

The Public Order Bill is considered a successor to the controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act passed last year, which was criticised for introducing curbs on the right to protest.

A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said: "Suella Braverman may borrow phrases from popular protest movements, but she is part of an anti-democratic minority that is on the wrong side of history.

Read more:
PM backs further crackdown on 'disruptive' protests

Climate protesters guilty of criminal damage after smashing windows

Extinction Rebellion 'to temporarily shift away from public disruption'

"The government is seeking to close all avenues for legitimate protest - by anyone about anything. The police already have adequate powers to arrest people for obstructing the highway."

Oliver Feeley-Sprague, the military, security and police programme director at Amnesty UK, said: "This bill, and its last-minute amendments, are deeply draconian and must be called out and rejected before it's too late.

"The right to protest is fundamental to a free and fair society - a right for which people have had to fight long and hard. Without the right to protest, everyone's ability to hold the powerful to account suffers.

"These types of restrictions are likely to have a chilling effect by seriously dissuading people from joining protests in the first place."

New cancer treatment found ‘promising’ for terminally ill dogs

Vishwam Sankaran

THE INDEPENDENT
Tue, 31 January 2023 


A new therapy to treat late-stage cancer in dogs can not only extend the lives of canines but also preserve “good quality of life”, according to a new study that may also lead to improved treatments for some cancers that affect humans.

The research, published recently in the journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy, used technology that modified unspecialised stem cells in dogs to treat the cancer-stricken canines.

Scientists, including those from the National University of Singapore (NUS), modified Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) that are capable of seeking out cancerous tumours.

The modified cells, according to researchers, carry a potent ”kill-switch” – molecules called cytosine deaminase – that produces a high, localised concentration of a cancer killing drug (5-fluorouracil) in the tumour environment and subsequently induces immunity against cancer.

“To repurpose stem cells for cancer treatment, it is usual to use viruses to introduce therapeutic genes into the cells. We have however, designed a non-viral gene delivery platform that introduces a high payload of therapeutic genes into the stem cells, to effectively destroy the out-of-control growing cancer cells,” study co-author Too Heng-Phon from NUS said.

“With this therapy that has been proven safe and demonstrated promising clinical benefits in animal patients, we hope to develop effective treatment options to help human patients with cancer as well, which can improve their health without compromising their quality of life,” Dr Heng-Phon said.

The technology was first tested on canine patients in 2018, and later delivered to 65 dogs, as well as two cats, with cancer conditions like perianal adenoma, lung metastasis, and sarcoma.

Veterinary patients in the study first received the treatment via direct tumour-site injections or through blood stream, followed by the ingestion of oral pills containing a drug commonly used to treat fungal infection (5-flucytosine), over a few days.

The cycle was repeated for two more weeks after about seven days before the first course of treatment was completed.

Researchers then monitored the condition of the animals and repeated the course where necessary.

They say 56 showed signs of positive response among those that received the treatment over a duration ranging from three to eight weeks.

About 14 of these animals, scientists say, showed full recovery from the treatment.

Two animals remained cancer free at least 30 months post treatment, according to the scientists, who added that 46 of the veterinary patients overall showed good quality of life over two to 32 months, with the treatment.

There were no significant side effects observed during the study likely due to the localised presence of the therapeutic cells which remain within the tumour environment, researchers say.

“Beyond results that have shown to benefit our companion animals, it is our hope to extend the therapy to human patients in the future and improve healthcare outcomes for those who have cancer – especially when they have no treatment options left,” Ho Yoon Khei, another author of the study, said.

In further studies, scientists hope to review the therapy’s safety and efficacy for veterinary medicine and discuss plans for clinical trials on human patients in Singapore and the Asia Pacific region.

Giant sea scorpion species discovered in New Mexico

Vishwam Sankaran

THE INDEPENDENT
Tue, 31 January 2023 



Scientists have discovered a giant ancient sea scorpion species in New Mexico that lived between 307 and 303 million years ago.

Hibbertopterus lamsdelli was over a metre long and likely lived in a marine-influenced estuary fed by a river delta, according to a new study published in the journal Historical Biology.

It belonged to an extinct group of aquatic arthropod invertebrate animals and likely fed on small crustaceans, invertebrate larvae and gastropod eggs, said scientists, including those from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in the US.


Such hibbertopterid sea scorpions are exceedingly rare worldwide, with this newly earthed fossil being only the fourth – and “the most reliable” – such specimen reported from the US.

“Hibbertopterus lamsdelli is important because these fossils are so rare,” study co-author Simon Braddy said.

“It is also the most reliable American hibbertopterid – this group of giant sweep-feeding eurypterids (sea-scorpions),” Dr Braddy added.

“It is unlikely that they fed on large prey. Instead, they used their anterior appendages to explore the substrate for shallow, infaunal animals such as small crustaceans and worms,” researchers wrote in the study.

While these sea scorpions were generally rare as fossils, researchers said they are locally abundant in American and European sedimentary rock deposits pertaining to this time period.

The fossils studied in the research were unearthed from the Atrasado Formation at Kinney Quarry, Bernalillo County in central New Mexico.

“It was collected from the top of Kinney Quarry’s bed 3, a 15-16 cm thick, mostly ochre-colored, laminated, bituminous limestone to calcareous siltstone, generally referred to as the ‘fish bed,’ as it yields most of the fish fossils at the quarry,” scientists pointed out.

“The fossil is preserved as a layer of carbonized cuticle and consists of a part and incomplete counterpart,” they added.

The uncovered fossil likely represents a sea scorpion’s molt, a process involving the shedding of its exoskeleton.

The fossil was transported a short distance and had partially slipped out, a sign that the exoskeleton had not completely disarticulated from the body.

“It was just over 1m long and similar to Hibbertopterus scouleri, from Scotland, but with a wider body segment before it’s tail-spine, which itself was shorter, with more parallel keels on the underside.” Dr Braddy said.

“These acted like sled rails to reduce body drag when it hauled itself out of the water during seasonal nuptial (mating) walks,” he explained.

Unusual spines found on the sea scorpion’s legs likely acted to help spread the load during their excursions.

“Hibbertopterus had walking legs with spinose extensions at the base (Laden) to spread their load, and the ventral keels on their telson [last abdomen segment] functioned like sled rails to reduce body drag,” scientists wrote in the study.

'Blue marble': how half a century of climate change has altered the face of the Earth




Robert Poole, Professor of History, University of Central Lancashire, 

Nick Pepin, Reader in Climate Science, University of Portsmouth, 

Oliver Gruner, Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture, University of Portsmouth

THE CONVERSATION
Mon, 30 January 2023

In December 1972, Nasa’s final Apollo mission (Apollo 17) took the iconic “Blue Marble” photo of the whole Earth. Many, including science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, had expected that the sight of Earth from afar would instil the belief that mankind’s future lay in space.

Instead, it made Earth appear more unique, and has since become an icon of the global environmental movement.

But that portrait is now a historical artefact. Fifty years later, on December 8 2022, Nasa took a new image of Earth from its Deep Space Climate Observatory approximately 1.5 million kilometres away. The photo reveals clear changes to the face of the Earth, some of which are indicative of 50 years of climate change.

Sparked environmentalism

The first photos taken of Earth from space were momentous historical events. In 1966, the robotic Lunar Orbiter 1 (the US’s first spacecraft to orbit the Moon) sent back some early pictures including a black-and-white image of a partly shadowed Earth. The following year, a satellite called ATS-3 took the first colour image of Earth.

Then in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to see and photograph Earth from space. They took various photos through the capsule’s windows, including the famous photo known as “Earthrise”.

This photo energised the environmental movement and helped to launch the first Earth Day in 1970. Held on April 22 each year, Earth Day now involves over a billion people worldwide in activities that support environmental protection.

In 1972, Nasa – aware of the public value of Earth images – resolved to capture an image of the whole Earth as Apollo 17 moved away from Earth orbit. Lit by the Sun and taken at a distance of 33,000 km, the photo included the first view of Antarctica from space. The image centred on Africa rather than Europe or America, and became a photographic manifesto for global justice.

The Earth also provided the only visible colour in space. Dominated by blue light, water and clouds, it appeared a unique environment that displayed no signs of human activity. “We live inside a blue chamber, a bubble of air blown by ourselves,” wrote cell biologist Lewis Thomas in 1973.

This was also the decade in which climate scientist James Lovelock put forward the Gaia theory of the Earth as a self-regulating set of combined living and non-living systems. “Earth systems science”, as it is now known, unites scientific understanding of the planet, its biosphere and its changing climate.

The impact of climate change

In December 2022, Nasa’s new Blue Marble photograph was compared with the original image at the University of Portsmouth’s “The whole Earth: Blue Marble at 50” conference. Since 1972, the planet has visibly changed.

The Antarctic ice sheet has visibly reduced in size, even though the main losses to the Larsen ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula are not visible in this particular image. Differentiating between the permanent ice sheet and seasonal sea ice is also difficult. When the new photo was taken, sea ice was still in retreat from the previous winter.

Antarctic glacier remains of the melting Larsen A ice shelf in front of mountains.

While it can be hard to differentiate between snow and cloud in satellite images, in the original photo, some snow appears to be visible on the Zagros and Central mountain ranges in Iran (north of the Arabian Gulf). This snow has vanished entirely in the new image. However, this is again within the range of seasonal variation, and research has failed to identify any significant long-term trend in seasonal snow cover in Iran between 1987 and 2007.

Most striking is the reduction in dark green vegetation in the African tropics, particularly at their northern extent. The dark shadow of Lake Chad in the northern Sahara has shrunk, and forest vegetation now begins hundreds of miles further south.

This is consistent with evidence of desertification in north Africa’s Sahel region. Research found that tree density in the western Sahel declined by 18% between 1954 and 2002. And the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that between 1990 and 2010, Africa lost 3–4 million hectares of forest per year, a large proportion in the Sahel.

Madagascar’s once-green landscape is now mainly brown. Long renowned for its ecological richness, the country is now classified a “biodiversity hotspot”, a term given to a region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by rapid habitat loss.

Many species that are found exclusively in Madagascar, including the Malagasy giant jumping rat, are now at risk of extinction. The population declined by 88% between 2007 and 2019.

Read more: David Bowie and the birth of environmentalism: 50 years on, how Ziggy Stardust and the first UN climate summit changed our vision of the future

The original Blue Marble photo symbolised a historical turning point, from faith in unlimited progress to understanding the limitations of the planetary environment. Most satellite technology is now focused on servicing and understanding the Earth, and space exploration has confirmed just what a unique planet we inhabit.

The former Star Trek actor William Shatner felt this powerfully on his brief ride into space in 2021. On his return, he remarked: “I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here with all of us.”

The evidence of 50 years of environmental degradation is before our eyes. The space mission that really matters now is the mission to save Earth.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

I am author of 'Earthrise: a Short History of the Whole Earth'. It will be out February 2023.

Nick Pepin has received funding from RGS, Royal Society, NERC and other organisations for research into climate change.

UK

Environmentalists blast Government’s road map for a cleaner, greener country

Helen William, PA
Mon, 30 January 2023

Environmentalists have condemned the Government’s environment plan aimed at helping create a greener, cleaner country as a “road map to the cliff edge”.

The comment from Greenpeace comes as the Government sets out its environmental improvement plan for England. Friends of the Earth have described it as “just rehashed commitments”.

The scheme is built on a vision set out five years ago in the 25 Year Environment Plan, including new powers and duties under the Environment Act, Agriculture Act and Fisheries Act, to provide ways to restore nature and improve the environmental quality of the air, waters and land.

This was the central target agreed in the global deal for nature at the UN Nature Summit COP15 in December.

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey (James Manning/PA)

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey is set to unveil the plan, which also stresses that progress can be measured against interim targets, on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Protecting our natural environment is fundamental to the health, economy and prosperity of our country.

“This plan provides the blueprint for how we will deliver our commitment to leave our environment in a better state than we found it, making sure we drive forward progress with renewed ambition and achieve our target of not just halting, but reversing the decline of nature.”

At least 500,000 hectares of new wildlife habitats, starting with 70 new wildlife projects including 25 new or expanded National Nature Reserves and 19 further Nature Recovery Projects are to be created and restored under the plan.

The Government is also to deliver a clean and plentiful supply of water for people and nature into the future, by tackling leaks, publishing a roadmap to boost household water efficiency, and enabling greater sources of supply.

Councils are to be challenged to improve air quality more quickly and tackle key hotspots and there is also a pledge to transform the management of 70% of the countryside by incentivising farmers to adopt nature-friendly practices.

Boosting green growth and creating new jobs, ranging from foresters and farmers to roles in green finance and research and development, is another pledge.

Ms Coffey said: “Nature is vital for our survival, crucial to our food security, clean air, and clean water as well as health and well-being benefits.

“We have already started the journey and we have seen improvements.

“We are transforming financial support for farmers and landowners to prioritise improving the environment, we are stepping up on tree planting, we have cleaner air, we have put a spotlight on water quality and rivers and are forcing industry to clean up its act. ”

A red squirrel (Liam McBurney/PA)

The plan includes a multi-million pound Species Survival Fund to protect rare species, from hedgehogs to red squirrels, is promised along with a pledge that Government support schemes will help 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers to adopt nature friendly farming practices on at least 10 to 15% of their land by 2030.

They are also to be helped to create or restore 30,000 miles of hedgerows a year by 2037 and 45,000 miles of hedgerows a year by 2050.

Other commitments include actions to tackle water efficiency in new developments and retrofitted properties, including reviewing building regulations and other legislation to address leaky toilets and dual flush buttons and to enable new water efficient technologies.

The restoration of 400 miles of river through the first round of Landscape Recovery projects and establishing 3,000 hectares of new woodlands along England’s rivers is also promised.

The current regulatory framework is to be rationalised to try and create a more efficient system.

There is also to be an effort to cut ammonia emissions through incentivised farming schemes and also to improve the way air quality information is communicated with the public.

Dr Doug Parr, of Greenpeace UK, said: “If this is a road map, it’s a road map to the cliff edge.

“Here’s yet more paperwork containing a threadbare patchwork of policies that fail to tackle many of the real threats to our natural world. This won’t do.

“Ministers want to crack down on dual flush toilets while letting water firms pump tonnes of raw sewage into our rivers and seas.

“Until we see immediate action (from) this Parliament to ban industrial fishing in all our marine protected areas, reduce industrial meat and dairy farming and ramp up protections across a bigger network of national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, we’re in real danger of UK nature going into freefall.”

Paul de Zylva, of Friends of the Earth, said that “on closer inspection it seems that many (of the measures) are just rehashed commitments the government is already late on delivering – and it’s unclear how others, such as ensuring everyone can live within a 15 minute walk of green space, will actually be met”.

He said: “There’s also a big emphasis on improving air quality which is completely at odds with the government’s £27bn road building agenda, raising serious questions over whether councils are being set up to fail.”